Living Dead
by Have Socks. Will Travel
Summary: At first, I didn't really notice the difference. It was almost like I had changed from human to Shinigami but without a pill or your hand to push me. As I floated there, there was so much time to think, to recall and to regret.


**So** **this** **is** **basically** **a** **sudden** **spurt** **from** **my** **morbid** **mind**. **Yeah**, **AP** **tests** **can** **do** **that** to **you**…

_Standard_ _disclaimers_ _apply_.

**Oo0oO**

If I had the power to change anything, there would be many things I'd be more than willing to fix. As I floated there, there was so much time to think, to recall and to regret.

At first, I didn't really notice the difference. It was almost like I had changed from human to Shinigami but without a pill or your hand to push me. The only noticeable difference was that the sudden light, which had been headed right toward me, had all but disappeared. I was feeling weightless, like a ten ton brick had been lifted off my shoulders and I was free of an unknown oppression for the first time in my life. By the time I noticed my weightlessness, a sudden pressure started in my chest and was as if all the shouldered weight was placed right there, right in the middle of me.

It was then that I started to notice other differences in the situation. The first thing that puzzled me was the lack of light. It had been blinding; more irritating than Kon, Renji, and Aizen's constant attacks all combined together. That light was missing. I was in the darkest place that I had ever been and it had the most oppressive air. But still I was weightless. Back then, in my confused thinking, I had the unnatural perception that somehow I had been transported into outer space.

Then came the confusion. Where was this darkness coming from? Sure, it had been dark as I had been walking home from Orihime's house, but it hadn't been _this_ dark. The streetlights from the street ahead had cast light into the alleyway when me and you decided to take it as a shortcut home. But now that light was gone, and somehow, you were too. The warmth of your presence was about as existent as the light where I was currently floating. But I _knew_ I knew that you were there. Before the blackness, you had reached out to take my hand, complaining about loose pebbles and I had the perfect comeback ready and waiting. It was then that the light came. That was all I remembered before the darkness.

But as I had waited, loose and unsubstantial in the inky blackness, it seemed that eons had passed. I had become aware that I was floating with my own body the only source of light in that pool of ultimate gloom. But after a while that one fact stopped amazing me. As I waited, I thought of nothing. It was almost like I was unconscious in my consciousness. It was like a waking dream where I remember all of my thoughts, but when the time comes to recall it, it all blacks out. I don't know how much time passed before the opaque fog began to lift and I began to be able to see things more clearly.

What awaited me in that wide alley was more than I could have ever imagined.

There you were; your small form crouched over the figure of a tall, orange haired boy. In the first seconds of my confusion I had the crazy idea that somehow Kon had gotten into my body and that a hollow attack was eminent. I reached for Zangetsu, but found that he wasn't on my back, a fact which was more than startling. I looked around frantically and soon the pieces began falling into place.

You had blood stains on your face, showing in sharp contrast to your pale skin in the dark night air, which was filled with the sound of screeching tires. Your legs were stuck under what I then realized was _my_ body. I was laying a little bit crooked, my spine bending in ways that it really shouldn't have, given the position I was laying in. You were staring at me, my other form, a look of shock crossing over your face after your initial confusion. I was confused as well. How could you be looking down at _my_ body if _I_ was up here, above your head? I called out your name and you looked up at me. Your eyes, dark and dazed, widened when you saw me. Moments passed while we kept up a static eye connection of before your eyes softened, then dropped to rest on my form there, on the damp ground. You bit your bottom lip and a sob echoed out from your mouth. That was the only one sound you made.

I worked my way down to you, flailing my arms in an uncoordinated swim, where I landed in a crouch by your side. Leaning forward, morbidly eager to catch a glimpse of my crooked form, I placed my hand on your shoulder. The contact was muffled and I felt nothing. I felt the support under my hand, but I felt nothing there to support it. I might as well have been invisible, because you didn't seem to have noticed my hand either.

"What's wrong?" I asked, leaning forward to catch a better glimpse. My other form was face down on the pavement, face pointing toward our two hunched forms. Blood was dribbling from it and my eyes were closed. For once I didn't have my eyebrows furrowed and I looked oddly peaceful.

"What's wrong?" I had asked again. "Why am I like this?" I had been under the impression that what I was going through was just another crazy part of being a shinigami; some part of it that was kept hushed until the person was ready to experience it.

You gathered my limp body up in your arms and held my head to your shoulder. You didn't seem to care that blood from my mouth was leaking on your favorite dress.

"Don't worry Ichigo. It's a natural part of what's happening." You then explained, closing your dark eyes to the night and began to rock back and forth.

"A natural part of what?" I had asked, still confused.

It hit me at the same time that you turned to me and explained:

"It's a natural part of dying Ichigo."

**Oo0oO**

**So I'm trying to decide if this is worth continuing. I can see at least one more chapter, maybe two coming from this. Also, tell me if this was confusing. Because things make sense to me as I write them, but that is just my twisted little mind. Some things make sense to me that don't to others.**

_Word count (Including A/Ns and this thingy): 1,107_


End file.
